Centre considering proposal to hike minimum salary of daily

Panaji, Jun 14 (PTI) The Centre is considering a proposal to increase the minimum salary of daily wage workers between Rs 16,000 to Rs 18,000 per month, as demanded by labour unions, Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said today.

"The (labour) unions are demanding that it (the minimum salary of daily wage workers) should be between Rs 16,000 to 18,000. We are considering the proposal," the Minister of State for Labour and Employment told reporters here.

Dattatreya was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry.

"(The) state government is an appellate authority to decide on the minimum wages but at the same time, following consistent demand from the labour unions, the Ministry wants to amend the statutory minimum wages for the country that is universal wages," he added.

Dattatreya said the governments main aim is to give proper job, wages and social security to the workers and the Ministry is working towards it.

He said the Centre is currently focusing on providing social security to unorganised workers.

"In all, 93 per cent of the unorganised workers have no social security, no proper enforcement of labour laws. We need to protect them," the senior BJP leader said.

Dattatreya said the social security cover would be provided in three phases.

"In the first phase, the construction workers would be covered by bringing them under the purview of formal sector giving benefit of provident fund (PF), ESI and others," he added.

The second phase, he said, will cover auto drivers, rickshaw pullers and in the final phase, workers under Mid-Day Meal scheme, and cine workers would be included.

The Minister said to have large impact of labour laws, the Union Labour Ministry is contemplating to rationalise the existing labour laws by brining all the 44 laws under four Labour Codes - Code on Wages, Code on Industry working, Code on Social Security and Code on Wages, safety Conditions and Health. PTI RPS NRB IKA

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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